If you have ever watched the movie "Twister", you may still remember those scientists who chased the tornado using those sensors floating in the air. CSU researchers recently also chased strong wind along I-70 with various sensors. Dr. Suren Chen (PI) and Dr. Juhua Liu (co-PI) with two graduate students in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CSU have been working on a research project entitled “Traffic Safety Vulnerability Information Platform (TS-VIP) for Highways in Mountainous Areas Using Geospatial Multimedia Technology”, which is sponsored by Mountain-Plains Consortium (MPC)-a USDOT university transportation research center. The research team integrates an advanced 3-D ultrasonic anemometer for wind measurements, a NI mobile data acquisition system for vehicle dynamics, three accelerometers, and a GPS-based video mapping system (VMS) for collecting geospatial multimedia information of the Interstate highway. The overall goal of the project is to develop a framework and web-based platform of a "Transportation Safety Vulnerability map" with traffic safety characteristics on feature points. A large SUV and a Penske truck were used for the field testing along the I-70 as well as I-25.

I-70 is a perfect example of many interstates in the country which undergo complicated weather and topographical conditions. The adverse environmental conditions, such as wind gust and steep grades, greatly threaten the safety of many vehicles and were blamed for many serious accidents in the past. The equipment worth about 15K for the testing includes an advanced 3-D ultrasonic anemometer for wind measurements, a NI mobile data acquisition system for vehicle dynamics and a GPS-based video mapping system (VMS) for collecting geospatial multimedia information of the driving path.

The project, for the first time in the country, integrates the real-time dynamic, wind and advanced geospatial multi-media field measurements with mobile testing on major highways. The real-time wind and GPS multimedia data is to assess the environmental conditions of vulnerable vehicles, while the vehicle dynamic measurements are directly related to the varying vehicle accident risk at different locations on the highway. Based on the synchronized testing data and safety risk assessment, a GIS-based webpage is developed and put on the Internet.

The study will help transportation agencies and trucking industry to identify those vulnerable locations on the highway during the planning stage and to study the causes and prevention strategies of high accident risks. On the demonstration website, people can get the raw measurement data (e.g. mean wind speed and turbulence), corresponding safety risk index and GPS-based video clip and still pictures at different locations along I-70 by several clicks once the project is finished. The following figure shows an example with georeferenced image and traffic environmental condition on a web-based platform (web page only works in IE).

This MPC project is just the first step of series exciting studies on traffic safety under adverse environments. Dr. Chen has recently secured funding from Colorado Department of Transportation and the Mountain & Plain Education and Research Center (MAP-ERC) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to further study large truck safety on I-70. It is believed that the series studies on I-70 mountain corridor will open a door to investigate the large truck driver safety and other vulnerable vehicles under natural environments systematically.